Dallas Stars Blog

Observations from a 4-3 (SO) loss

Marc Crawford’s quote of the night might have sounded a bit flippant and maybe even simplistic.

When asked what he liked about his team right now, the Stars coach replied “I like that we’re getting points.”

Now it would be easy to issue a “Well, duh” on that one, but Crawford has a point about points. The Stars are 5-0-2 in their last seven games, and that is immensely better than 5-2-0. Those two points could mean the difference between making the playoffs and missing. They could mean the difference between a first round match-up with Vancouver or a first-round match-up with San Jose. They are huge.

How huge? Well, consider what happened to the Stars when they went on a five-game losing streak to start February. They fell like a rock in the standings. Could that have been curtailed with an overtime loss or a shootout loss? Could they have picked up a point against New Jersey or Columbus? It would have been important.

So, yes, picking up points is big right now.

But I think also big is how this team is playing, and the answer to that question is pretty darned good. The reason the Stars are 5-0-2 in their last seven games is because they have had long stretches where they have been the better team. They earned wins against Detroit and Nashville and San Jose. They fought back to get points against Phoenix and Los Angeles. And on Wednesday, after an awful start, they had Calgary running in circles. Quite honestly, if Miikka Kiprusoff had not been out of his head, I think the Stars could have had six goals. They were that aggressive and that good.

And that, to me, will result in a lot of points.

Can the Stars keep this going? Who knows. You check out the scores from across the league, and it really is hard to win right now. LA bounced back to beat Detroit 2-1. Anaheim routed the Rangers 5-2. Chicago got a point in a 4-3 shootout loss. So when the Wild come in on Friday or the Kings on Sunday or the Sharks on Tuesday or the Blackhawks on Thursday, what can you expect……?

Well, I will say you can expect intensity and close play and big stops and great scoring chances…and fun, most likely.

But, only if the Stars can get some points. That is the point of this whole thing, right?

As for the game:

_ Brad Richards returned from missing 10 games and played 22:39. He had no shots on goal and no points and was minus-1, but he looked good overall. He won 10-of-18 faceoffs and created some solid scoring chances.

“I felt better as the game went on,” Richards said. “A little more than three weeks away, the pace and everything didn’t feel as normal, as comfortable. I tried to play smart and get into it a different way. You’re kind of on egg shells when you get hit. You’re not really sure. Never gone through it like that. But as the game went on, and I had the puck, I realized I am not made of glass and I got more comfortable.”

Crawford said he too believes it was a good first step: “I thought he looked like he was off for 10 days. I am confident he is going to be better next game and confident he is going to be even better the game after that. I don’t think you come back from that long a layoff without some rust in your game. I do think he looks fresher.”

_ Jamie Benn scored a goal for the fifth consecutive game. That’s a career-best for him, and he is one of only 10 players in the NHL this season to have a five-game goal-scoring streak or better.

Benn saw his minutes reduced some with the return of Richards. He played 24:28, had six shots on goal, three hits and two takeaways.

_ Jeff Woywitka had the first multi-point game of his career. He played 22:18, had two assists, two blocked shots and two takeaways. It was good timing on his part, as the guess is that Nicklas Grossman will return from a hip injury on Friday. The Stars will either have to take a defenseman out _ probably between Mark Fistric (11:48) and Karlis Skrastins (12:42) _ or they could play seven defensemen and scratch a forward. Jason Williams played just 3:35 Wednesday.

_ Tomas Vincour scored the first goal and first point of his NHL career. It was his 14th game with the Stars, and he popped out from behind the goal line into the left circle and roofed a shot from distance to tie the game at the 5:39 mark of the third period.

“I just tried to shoot it from the corner and it went in,” Vincour said. “I’ll definitely never forget this moment.”

_ And Alex Goligoski continues to set new levels of time on ice. He played 30:19, had an assist and was minus-2. He also had a huge scoring chance in overtime. However, he had four giveaways and did not look as good as he had in previous games. The minutes could be getting to him, but he was actually better at the end of the game than he was at the beginning.